Search results for "Economic Geography"
showing 10 items of 682 documents
Innovative culture in district innovation systems of European ceramics SMEs
2017
We need to understand the dynamics of current local production systems in the form of industrial districts and, particularly, how culture and innovation are interlinked. In this paper, we argue that the district innovation system approach, which covers the innovation systems and industrial district literatures, provides a set of ideas useful for understanding the role of culture in innovation in industrial districts. We study the role of innovation culture in two of the most important European ceramics industrial districts in Italy and Spain. Specifically, we analyse how, within a given district system, the innovation culture, networks and social structure, and their inter-relations, influe…
Exogenous sources of regional industrial change
2017
The role of exogenous sources of new path development has been underplayed in the literature on regional industrial change so far. The aim of this article is to explore in a conceptual way under which conditions and in what ways non-local knowledge can lead to new path development in different regional innovation systems (RISs). We distinguish between organizationally thick and diversified RISs, thick and specialized RISs and thin RISs and argue that these types vary substantially in their needs for exogenous sources as well as in their capacities to attract and absorb knowledge generated elsewhere.
Social determinants of identity in communities: A social capital- and social categorization-based approach – findings from Latvia
2017
The article investigates the relations, in the light of new paradigms of economic development, between trust and economic wealth at the micro level in the Republic of Latvia, by means of a structural equation modelling-based approach and a framework combining social capital and social identity theory, in a rationale of cross-fertilization between social and cognitive science. Results are also tested against control dimensions reflecting relevant divides in Latvian society (residence place dimensions; ethno-linguistic belongings; educational differences). General results support the hypothesis of the existence of a causal path connecting personal wealth, institutional trust, social engagemen…
Street Names through Sociological Lenses. Part II: Constructionism and Utilitarianism
2021
Abstract As toponymic means of inscribing urban space, street names have been addressed mainly by human geographers, who have articulated the field of critical place-name studies. In this paper, I continue the endeavor started in the previous issue published in Social Change Review of reading street names through sociological lenses. Whereas in the first part of this two-part contribution the analysis was made from functionalist and conflictualist perspectives, this second and final part employs social constructionism and the utilitarian theoretical tradition in making sociological sense of street nomenclatures. First, conceiving of street names as forming discursively constructed linguisti…
Bariery rozwoju rodzinnych gospodarstw rolnych w opinii ich właścicieli z województwa opolskiego = Barriers to the development of family farms in the…
2018
Celem opracowania jest identyfikacja zmian w zachowaniach organizacyjnych i produkcyjnych właścicieli towarowych gospodarstw rolnych służących zapewnieniu trwałości gospodarstw oraz poznanie głównych barier, których przezwyciężenie jest istotne dla budowania potencjałów rozwojowych rolnictwa i obszarów wiejskich w województwie opolskim. W badaniach uwzględniono czynniki egzogeniczne i endogeniczne, w szczególności: politykę rolną, wielowarstwowe otoczenie instytucjonalne, gotowość rolników do inwestowania, zmiany w technologii produkcji, poszukiwanie nisz specjalizacyjnych. Źródłem informacji były badania ankietowe przeprowadzone wśród właścicieli gospodarstw, produkujących głównie na rynek…
Whyvery goodin India might bepretty goodin North America
2019
AbstractSituated at the interface of several sub-disciplines (corpus linguistics, World Englishes, variationist sociolinguistics), this study investigates patterns of adjectival amplification (very good,so glad,pretty cool) in the Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE). It highlights regional distributions/preferences of amplifier-adjective 2-grams and the idiosyncratic status of certain bigrams according to their frequency status. Globally, clear regional preferences in amplification patterns as well as possible trends concerning change are identified. Regionally, L1 varieties contrast starkly with some regions (Africa, Indian subcontinent) but – maybe unexpectedly – not with others (…
The Accumulation of Distinctive Competences in Family Firms
2020
Taking as its basis the resource- and capability-based view of the firm, this study provides an in-depth exploration of the ability of the family tourism firm to accumulate and develop the distinctive competences that are key to its success. Specifically, the analysis centres on how the family tourism firm acquires distinctive competences through the development of managerial capabilities. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), the empirical analysis focuses on a sample of 1,019 Spanish tourism firms. The results of the study suggest that family businesses face certain problems in accumulating distinctive competences. Moreover, the study indicates that such problems are due in part to t…
Charitable food aid in Finland: from a social issue to an environmental solution
2019
Since the establishment of the first food bank in 1995, charitable food aid (CFA) has become entrenched in Finland as a seemingly irreplaceable solution to food poverty. Further, it has recently been suggested that the focus of food aid activities is shifting from food poverty and temporary hunger alleviation towards environmental sustainability through addressing food waste via organized re-distribution of expiring food from retail to charitable organizations. This potentially creates a mechanism that (1) solidifies food poverty and (2) fortifies the paradoxical situation where charitable organizations delivering food aid are dependent on food waste rather than trying to reduce it. To unde…
Money, morality and magistrates: prosecuting and judging in the Republic of Benin
2018
Since 2012, Beninese magistrates have gone on multiple strikes. Most of them complain about their substantial workload, low pay, and poor working conditions. They also highlight the discrepancies b...